Bradenton man sentenced after killing roommates in murder case, prosecutors say
A man will spend the rest of his life in prison after a Manatee County jury convicted him of killing two roommates inside their Bradenton duplex , prosecutors said.
A Manatee County judge sentenced 31-year-old Jamal Lamar Blakely to life in prison after the jury found him guilty of two counts of second-degree murder with a firearm following a February trial at the Manatee County courthouse, according to court records.
Circuit Judge Ryan Felix imposed the sentence immediately after the trial, records show. The life sentence will be served in addition to a prison term Blakely is already serving in a separate sexual battery case.
In response to the conviction, Blakely’s attorney, Dustin Wagner, said the evidence presented at trial raised questions about gaps in the investigation and the credibility of some witnesses, adding that the case was more contested in court than public accounts suggest.
“The story people think they know is not the same story the jury heard in court, and this was far from a slam dunk for the State,” Wagner told the Bradenton Herald.
Prosecutors said the conviction comes more than a decade after Blakely killed Adrian Velasquez-Baca, 43, and Mauricio Maldonado-Conde, 55, inside their Bradenton duplex.
Manatee County sheriff’s deputies discovered the men dead Feb. 7, 2012, after responding shortly before 11:30 a.m. to a welfare check at a rental duplex in the 600 block of 61st Avenue Terrace East in the Pride Park area of Manatee County, according to an arrest report.
Investigators went to the home after one of the victims’ employers reported not hearing from him for several days, according to the report. Detectives later determined the two men had not been seen for days.
Deputies wrote in the report that they found Velasquez-Baca near the front door of the living room with multiple gunshot wounds to the back, while Maldonado-Conde was discovered in a bedroom with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
New evidence leads to murder arrest, deputies say
Investigators said they initially believed the killings may have occurred during a robbery.
A neighbor reported hearing gunshots about two days earlier, according to an arrest report.
Deputies considered Blakely as an early suspect, but prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence at the time to file charges. He was about 17 years old at the time of the murders, according to prosecutors.
The case remained unresolved for years until new information surfaced while Blakely was serving a prison sentence in an unrelated case.
According to the State Attorney’s Office, a prison cellmate later told investigators that Blakely admitted to the killings and described details that had never been made public.
Investigators also determined Blakely lived across the street from the victims at the time of the shootings, and his fingerprints were found at the crime scene, prosecutors said. Those developments, along with additional investigative work by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, eventually led to the murder charges.
Suspect had long criminal history, records say
Blakely was already serving a lengthy prison sentence stemming from two separate sexual battery cases.
According to prosecutors and court records, Blakely attacked a girl while she was walking on the street in October 2011. Investigators said he pointed a gun at her and demanded money before pistol-whipping her and dragging her to a nearby home, where he sexually battered her.
A jury later convicted Blakely of sexual battery of a child 12 years old or older with a deadly weapon, attempted armed robbery with a weapon and kidnapping, according to court records. He received a 35-year prison sentence in that case.
Prosecutors said Blakely committed another attack in June 2012 when he broke into the home of a 62-year-old Bradenton woman, robbed her of cash and jewelry and sexually battered her.
Blakely later entered a no-contest plea to armed home invasion and sexual battery with a deadly weapon and received an additional prison sentence in 2015, court records show.
The combined sentences resulted in a 40-year prison term that Blakely was already serving when investigators developed new evidence linking him to the 2012 killings, according to the State Attorney’s Office.
Blakely’s criminal history also includes prior convictions for possession of marijuana, burglary of an unoccupied structure, felony criminal mischief and obstruction, according to court records.
Assistant State Attorney Rebecca Freel, who prosecuted the case, said the conviction and sentence brought long-awaited justice for the victims.
“While it may seem sometimes that justice delayed is justice denied, this case is an example of the opposite being true,” Freel said in a written statement.
“Through patience, tenacity, hard work, and a little bit of luck, the men and women of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office were able to build a case against Jamal Blakely, and justice was finally achieved for the victims when, for a time, it seemed their deaths may go unanswered,” she said.
Freel also thanked the jurors who heard the case and said the outcome allows the victims’ families to “finally put this brutal chapter of their lives to rest.”
Blakely has 30 days to file a notice of appeal under Florida court rules.
